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But sometimes, when you’ve got it, there’s nothing more important in the game.

Holy Cross’ first baseman Gabby Giordano showed that Monday.

Using her softball savvy, Giordano got a good jump off second base to move up on a short wild pitch. When the throw to third ricocheted out of play, Giordano scored. And when Abby Anderson stroked an RBI single that led to the only other run of the game, Holy Cross had all the runs it needed for Erika Mackie, who fired a fourth straight one-hitter in a 2-0 win over Dunmore.

“To be honest, I just wanted to get us started,” Giordano said of her big moment in Monday’s Lackawanna League Division III softball showdown of intraborough rivals. “I wanted to get something going.

“I always try to take big leads and I know if I don’t hesitate I’ll be able to make it. As soon as I see it in the dirt, I just take off. Making the other team make plays makes them prove themselves.”

It’s a play only a handful can make.

“She’s an aggressive kid,” Holy Cross coach X.E. McAndrew said. “She’s an athlete. Only an athlete can make that play.

“They say some people watch things happen, some make it happen, and some say what the hell just happened? She’s the second. She’s making it happen.”

It started when Giordano worked a one-out walk and went to second when Grace Perechinsky’s towering fly ball to left was caught in the 20- to 30-mile per hour wind gusts and dropped behind Gabby Summa — who two hitters earlier robbed Lauren Leppo with a brilliant, running shoestring catch — for a single.

“Our left fielder is great,” said hard-luck loser Sarah Ross, who allowed only three hits and no earned runs, striking out eight. “She makes all the plays for us. Under better circumstances, she definitely would have had it.”

Instead, it set up the perfect storm. When Ross’ changeup to Olivia Golay kicked off the corner of the plate, Giordano bolted for third and then trotted home, with Perechinsky landing on third.

Anderson lined a 1-2 pitch over the head of second baseman Marina Pegula to make it 2-0, and Mackie made that stand up.

She struck out nine, walked one and her defense didn’t make any mistakes, coming up with a few gems of their own.

Shortstop Julia DeMarco made her own shoetop grab off a soft liner to rob Carly Tallo in the fourth, Leppo handled a chance off one knee to retire Julie Cardillo and Mackie snagged a bunt that got past her and threw out Maggie Scalzo in the fifth.

“They’d have had 12 hits if it wasn’t for the defense behind me,” said Mackie, who saw her earned run average drop to 0.23. “It gives me so much more confidence on the mound. I know if they hit it, they’re going to get it.

Even Erin (Kranick) and Abby (Anderson) colliding in the outfield. I’d rather both of them go for it than neither of them.”

While Mackie saw her season WHIP drop to 0.35, Dunmore’s early-season offense woes continued. The Lady Bucks have scored just three runs in four games and have just nine hits in 65 at bats.

“We’re going to get there,” Ross said. “We’re very young. We only have two seniors. We’ll get there.”

Dunmore coach Ryan Ferguson agreed.

“We’re just not hitting the ball well at all,” Ferguson said. “We’re off balance. We’re just not getting good swings yet. We will. We have good hitters.”

Contact the writer: mmyers@timesshamrock.com @mmyersTT on Twitter

Holy Cross Dunmore

ab r h bi ab r h bi

DeMarco ss 3 0 0 0 Ross p 3 0 0 0

Leppo 2b 3 0 0 0

Giordano 1b 2 1 0 0 Tallo 3b 3 0 0 0

Perechinsky c 2 1 1 0 Borgia cf 2 0 0 0

Golay 3b 2 0 1 0 Tallo rf 3 0 1 0

Anderson cf 2 0 1 1 Summa lf 3 0 0 0

Kosin rf 2 0 0 0 Cardillo ss 2 0 0 0

Kranick of 3 0 0 0 Scalzo c 2 0 0 0

Ross dp 3 0 0 0 Pegula 2b 2 0 0 0

Frable dp 2 0 0 0

Damiano 1b 0 0 0 0

Totals 22 2 3 1 Totals 11 0 1 0

Holy Cross 000 200 0 — 2

Dunmore 000 000 0 — 0

2B: Olivia Golay (HC).

Holy Cross IP H R ER BB SO

Mackie, WP 7 1 0 0 1 9

Dunmore IP H R ER BB SO

Ross, LP 7 3 2 0 5 8

Records: HC 4-0, 5-0; DUN 1-2, 1-2

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